Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Unreal Clinton bashing

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 8:17 a.m.

That's all I could think about after reading a column by some woman who calls herself a freelance writer and stand-up comedian this Sunday. Her name is Julia Gorin, and her column, no great surprise, was published in the Review-Journal. It would have been a surprise had the editor down the street exercised responsible editorial judgment for once in his life and sent the column to the trash bin. But, alas, he did not, and so she almost ruined my day.

The headline said, "Buddy never had a chance." The article took a personal tragedy and tried to make more political hay in an effort, I assume, to prolong the bashing of Bill Clinton that so many people did so well during his presidency. What this Gorin woman really did, though, was use the death of a family pet to make that hay. And that just doesn't sit well with me and, I hope, most decent American families.

I suppose I am a little too emotional about this subject because we, too, lost our beloved little dog this past weekend. His death was after a long and very eventful life, but it was still very sad. Anyone who has ever owned a pet understands the loving bonds that attach and how deeply it hurts when man's truly best friends are lost. Making fun or making political points out of those losses is just cheap and petty and, while it can be expected from the lunatic and malicious fringes of our society, it should not be accepted behavior by responsible society.

Just in case you missed the drivel, let me share some of it with you.

"Buddy, ostensibly beloved dog of the Clinton family ... What happened to Buddy is precisely what can be expected to happen to a dog when it's meant to be little more than a pawn in its owner's continuing attempts to impersonate human beings ... I find myself wondering whether, upon hearing the news about Buddy, Clinton even remembered that he had a dog. Considering how expendable human life was rumored to be under the Clintons, what could a canine count for?" The woman then goes on to explain her concern when the Clintons first got Buddy. "As a dog lover, I was more than a little disturbed by the thought ..."

She's right about that part, she must be more than a little disturbed to think that anyone who has owned a dog like Buddy could be so callous as to not even remember he existed, let alone, set a tone -- as she suggests -- that would lead to a Secret Service agent's carelessness as a contributing factor in the dog's death. How many people think that the personal protection unit of the Secret Service, especially in this instance, is careless? Besides Julia Gorin, that is.

The fact of the matter is that dogs like to run, and many of them like to run away, chase cars and otherwise exhibit a certain freedom to act like dogs. We spend much of our waking days trying our best to make sure they don't exhibit this freedom in a way that is harmful, but the dog pounds are full of runaways, and the pet cemeteries are far too full of those little pets who caught the cars they were chasing. In almost all instances, there were pet owners at home devastated by the loss. The Clinton family, in that regard, is just like any other American family whose pet has been lost forever.

I have had the opportunity on a number of occasions to meet, walk with and play with Buddy. Not only was he one of the brighter dogs I have ever seen, he was also one of the most playful and endearing, which is a sign of a happy home not a neglectful one. Yes, Buddy had a rather famous family that consisted of a president, a U.S. senator and a delightful first child in Chelsea. He also had an extended family of aides and service agents who loved him, played constantly with him and watched out for him as they would their own family pets.

To think that anything any member of the Clinton's extended family would do would be done with any intent to allow harm to that dog is to assume the same for every other family in every other part of this country. And that, only the most hateful, ignorant and self-despising person could do. Hello, Ms. Gorin and hello to the newspaper that would print her drivel in an attempt to further attack a former president.

And, if all that weren't enough to earn the medal for mercilessness, consider the ending of her column: "Then, again, one shouldn't rush to judgment, since we don't yet know the full story. Perhaps Buddy wanted to die. Maybe he pulled a Vince Foster ... and just couldn't take the guilt."

Who is this person? What kind of animal is she? Has she no shame?

Now, where have I heard that before?